Fleming Wildcats are consolation champs

Dustin Price drives in as he led Fleming in scoring as they beat Norwood for the 1A Consolation Championship.
(Jonathan Seib/Journal-Advocate)

BROOMFIELD -- The Fleming Wildcats are the 1A Consolation State Champions, having defeated the Norwood Mavericks 54-35 on Saturday in the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield on Saturday.

The Wildcats came out strong at halftime and delivered the knockout punch in the third quarter and rode it out through the fourth.

It was a tight first half, with the teams trading scores back and forth. Each team had one player step up and carry their offense with Dustin Price leading the Wildcats through the first half with 12 points and Brad Campbell leading the way for the Mavericks with 14.

But the Wildcats adjusted well at halftime with the seniors, including Price, leading the charge. Tanner Serrato, Price and Trevor Chintala would start the quarter with a quick six points for Fleming and force a Norwood time out. Fleming would go on to outscore the Mavericks 16-8 in the third quarter. The Wildcat defense would respond well, adjusting at halftime and taking Campbell out of it in the second half, holding him to just six points in the half and 20 overall.

Price ended leading the Wildcats with 20 points. Serrato had 14, Tyler Vandenbark scored 12. Kyle Lengfelder scored two as did Trevor Chintala. The only Wildcat senior who did not score was Jeremy Richardt whose bucket dropped in just after the buzzer. Blake Meredith had one point and Darian Wilkening had three.

"Those seniors, everything they have done has been pretty good since they were small.

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And everything they've done, when they win and even when they lose they bounce right back and that is why I was really proud of them," said Fleming head coach Bob Vandenbark.

Fleming lost in the first round of the 1A State tournament to Vail Christian on Thursday but came right back and beat Holly handedly on Friday to advance along the consolation bracket to the championship game.

"We could have just tuned out, especially that second game and I thought we really played well in that game overall. It seemed like it was the best game that we played all year really," Vandenbark said.

The Wildcats changed offensive strategies for the final two games of the consolation bracket.

"Honestly the offense we ran is one that we haven't in awhile but it seemed to work well for us yesterday so I figured we should try it again and it opened everything up again," commented coach Vandenbark.

The Fleming Wildcats finish their season with a 21-4 overall record.

With such a big crop of seniors leaving, the Wildcats have some big shoes to fills. But they exit with quite a legacy.

"They've really helped to build the program and have given all those freshmen something to look forward to, and hopefully this experience will lead into something good for those freshman and they will finish a little better than these guys did," Vandenbark said.

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